Chapter 5
“Carlo died fifteen years ago,” Damian said.
Claire kept her eyes on the window. “According to the same hospital system that declared your father dead.”
Marco’s phone buzzed. He read the screen with one hand on the wheel and went silent. “Carlo’s death certificate was signed by Dr. Stephen Vale.”
“The same doctor as my father’s.”
“Both bodies were cremated within a day.”
Damian dialed. Luca answered on the first ring.
“Where are you?”
“Looking for you.” Damian kept his voice flat. “Was your father cremated?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
“Did you see the body first?”
A longer silence. “No.”
“Where are you right now?”
“At your estate. Damian, what is this?”
Damian looked at Claire. Mia was at the estate, and so was Luca.
“Walk out the front gate.”
“What?”
“Now.”
He heard Luca’s breath change. “You think I’m involved.”
“I think I don’t know enough.”
A pause, then, very quietly, “Fine.”
On Marco’s independent feed, a figure crossed the gravel under the floodlights and stood in the rain with empty hands. Only then did Damian call Mrs. Bell. Mia was asleep and safe.
—
Luca was still standing outside when they reached the estate an hour later. The rain had soaked him through. He did not move when Damian stopped in front of him.
“My father died in my arms.”
“You said you never saw the body.”
“I saw him before they took him into surgery.” Luca’s hands curled. “He had cancer. He weighed nothing.”
Damian waited.
“He said something. At the end.” Luca’s voice cracked. “He said, *Tell Damian I’m sorry I chose the wrong brother.*”
The words fell between them.
“Which brother?” Damian asked.
Luca looked up at the mansion. “I always thought he meant some old business argument. I don’t know anymore. Anthony or Sebastian.”
Marco came out with a folder under his coat. Three weeks after Anthony’s death, twenty million dollars had moved from a Romano trust to an offshore company called Northstar Maritime. The authorizing signature was Sebastian’s.
Claire stared at the page. “Robert said Sebastian was protecting Anthony.”
“Maybe Robert was wrong,” Marco said.
Damian said nothing. Maybe Sebastian had betrayed his brother from the beginning.
—
State police found Robert shortly after midnight, locked in an abandoned ranger station five miles from the lodge, dehydrated but alive. His first question, when Damian reached him, was whether Mia was safe.
“She is.”
“Did Sebastian contact you?”
“No.”
Robert closed his eyes. “He will. He’s dying. And he thinks the truth belongs to you now.”
He asked to see the watch. Damian held it out. Robert smiled, and it hurt him.
“Your father gave that to Sebastian before they split up.”
“Then how did Claire get it?”
Robert looked at her, and her face changed. “My mother.”
“Sebastian gave it to Evelyn eighteen years ago,” Robert said. “He told her to keep it until she found someone brave enough to reach Damian without going through the Romano organization.”
Evelyn had passed it to Claire. Claire hid it inside Mia’s rabbit when Sebastian reappeared.
The watch was never only a keepsake. It was a key, and not just the brass one tucked inside. Anthony had altered its ticking so the rhythm carried numbers, and Robert knew only one person who could read them.
“Sebastian.”
—
At 1:17 a.m., every clock in the mansion stopped. The lights flickered. In the study, a telephone rang on a line that was in no directory.
Damian answered.
“Damian.”
He had heard that voice only in childhood memory. It was older and rougher now.
“Sebastian?”
A breath. “God, you sound like Anthony.”
Damian’s hand shook on the receiver. “Where is my father?”
Silence. Then, “Alive when I last saw him.”
Twenty-two years folded into four words. Damian had to hold the edge of the desk.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Behind him Claire put her hand over her mouth. Robert was weeping.
“He doesn’t know who he is anymore,” Sebastian said. “Your father survived the boathouse, but not unchanged.” He gave coordinates for an old monastery hospital in northern Vermont. Anthony had been living there under another name.
“Why didn’t you bring him home?”
“Because someone followed me.”
“Who?”
Sebastian’s voice broke. “The same person who betrayed us twenty-two years ago.”
Damian’s eyes went to Luca, standing in the doorway.
“Damian, listen carefully—”
A gunshot cracked through the receiver. Then the line died.
“Sebastian!”
Nothing. Ten seconds later, the estate alarm began to scream. Marco stared at the monitor. “Someone’s in the east wing.”
Mia was sleeping in the east wing.
Damian ran. Halfway up the stairs every light went out. Mrs. Bell screamed in the dark. When the emergency lights came on, Mia’s door stood open, and her bed was empty.
May you like
On the pillow lay Anthony’s silver watch. Beside it was a single handwritten line.
**YOU FOUND THE FATHER. NOW FIND THE SON.**
